1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to casino gaming and, in particular, to gaming machines having mechanical bonus wheels.
2. Discussion of the Background
Before the advent of modern day computers, gaming regulators approved gaming machines that were purely mechanical in nature. Many gaming machines used mechanical reels and/or wheels. At the time of the mechanical spin, the spin outcome was unknown. Today, regulators hold new gaming machines to a much higher standard. Prior to the reel or wheel spin, the outcome is already known, and machines are generally required to check that the spin outcome depicted matches the predetermined outcome. Another important facet of today's gaming machine is the ability, within the precision required by gaming regulators, to demonstrate a calculable and predictable “expected return” on the part of the player (or alternately from the point of view of the house, “house advantage”).
Novel bonus games, particularly those encompassing a mechanical apparatus, are popular in current casino gaming machines. When a bonus game is combined with an underlying slot machine, the entire game must comply with regulatory requirements. As such, bonus games of a mechanical nature are desirable (due to eye-candy appeal to players) but, too often, resort to predetermined outcomes (due to regulatory hurdles).
The use of a wheel in a casino game top box is conventional, such as that found in mechanical wheel games of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,823,874 and 5,848,932. In these wheel bonus games, a static indicator (stationary pointer) remains motionless while an adjacent mechanical wheel rotates. In this approach, the wheel gradually slows down and stops, with the segment on the wheel indicated by the pointer representing the player's win. The “MONTE CARLO” from Bally Corporation top box concept (originally a 1970s game with a “parallel” bonus in which the player continued to wager, and recently revived by Bally as a conventional bonus game with the same name) takes a slightly different approach in which the mechanical indicator is dynamic (moving pointer) while the wheel is static. In the Bally approach, the pointer rotates, in the plane of the surface of the wheel, and stops, with the segment on the wheel indicated by the pointer representing the player's win. Both of these current approaches utilize a predetermined outcome, such as a computer controlling a stepper motor to stop the wheel at a precise, predetermined outcome (i.e., a segment of the wheel having a “value”)—the actual spin of the “wheel” is simply a cosmetic fait accompli.
The California Lottery has a TV game trademarked “THE BIG SPIN” in which a free moving ball is housed internally in a wheel whose segments depict awards. The wheel is spun by a contestant to determine the contestant's award. The free moving and usually bouncing ball finally lands in a segment representing the winning award. The California Lottery Commission retains an independent auditor to carefully examine and test the wheel and equipment prior to each television show. However, from a gaming perspective, having people check the equipment, such as prior to each play (or each hour or each day), is completely impractical, as hundreds or thousands of operations (i.e., game plays) may occur on each of the hundreds or thousands of gaming devices every day in the casino environment. Similarly, it is also impractical to have the player physically spin the wheel while an agent of the casino visually determines the outcome. THE BIG SPIN wheel freely spins and the ball freely lands in an award segment. The contestant views the wheel spin, which is witnessed by the state and further “verified” by a live television audience. This represents a methodology that is highly impractical and/or would not pass regulatory approval for automated slot machine use in a casino.
Roulette and the large casino wheels such as the Big Six wheel are considered casino table games and do not have the same regulatory hurdle of slot/automated gaming machines due to the presence of a casino employee at each spin. In the sense of having a casino/lottery agent verifying game outcome, THE BIG SPIN wheel is similar to the Big Six wheel.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,963, any bias in the mechanical components of the Pachinko top box, as a bonus game to an underlying casino slot machine, is eliminated. Lane values are randomly selected and “locked-in” to the lanes. Thereafter, a ball is released from the top of the playfield and, after traversing a forest of deflecting pins, settles into a lane. The lane “selected” by the ball represents the player's win. A distinct advantage to this approach is that the influence of any mechanical imperfections or biasing problems are eliminated by the disclosed methodology of assigning lane values, such that both the player and the casino are protected from faulty equipment. As a corollary, neither the casino nor the regulators need to check the Pachinko equipment any more often than usual.
While modern bonus “wheels” in gaming devices have been successful, nevertheless a player may feel that the gaming machine is controlling the outcome, because the final arrangement of the indicator and wheel, in these modern versions, is carefully controlled by a processor and a stepper motor and in no way represents free motion. Indeed, the final outcome of the wheel game is predetermined before the “spin” even begins. For example, in current wheel bonus games, it is common for the wheel to come to rest at a nominal value (say, $25), having just passed an adjacent segment of high value (say, $500). Although this leads to some suspense on the part of the player, it also may lead the player to a feeling of “undue control” by the gaming machine.
The Pachinko approach discussed above alleviates this problem in that, once the lane values are randomly locked-in, the free motion of the Pachinko ball dictates the outcome of the game. The contrivance of a pre-determined outcome to the various possible awards is eliminated, to the benefit of the players.
A need exists to develop a mechanical wheel-type casino game of chance in which the final outcome is not predetermined and controlled precisely by a computer in the gaming machine.
A further need exists to develop a mechanical wheel-type of casino game of chance in which free motion is used to determine the final outcome.
A need further exists to develop a mechanical wheel-type of casino game of chance in which both the “indicator” and the “wheel” have dynamic mechanical motion, instead of one or the other being static. It would be desirable to use a freely moving ball, or similar bouncing object, as the indicator.
A need further exists to develop a wheel-type of casino game of chance similar to the California Lottery THE BIG SPIN wheel, wherein the spin and determination of the outcome are performed automatically, and wherein the expected value of such a casino game is nevertheless calculable and controlled to mitigate mechanical bias, such that the game may be approved by regulators. Because of the free-motion nature of the game, it would be further desirable to self-monitor the outcomes to check that no mechanical bias has crept in.
A final need exists to incorporate such features in a casino game of chance as a bonus game to underlying gaming machines such as slot gaming machines.